Responding to the remarks, AU spokeswoman, Ebba Kalondo, reminded Trump that many Africans “arrived in the U.S. as slaves,” adding that Trump’s “profane statement flies in the face of all accepted behaviour and practice.”

She described the U.S. as “a global example of how migration gave birth to a nation built on strong values of diversity and opportunity.”

In her statement, Kalonda said the African Union and its partners would continue to address the causes of migration, while also fighting against racism and xenophobia.

Meanwhile, South Africa’s governing African National Congress party took to Twitter to chide Trump over his “offensive” choice of words.

Others responded to the derogatory slur with humour: “Good morning from the greatest, most beautiful ‘shithole country’ in the world!!!” Leanne Manas, a news anchor for South Africa’s SABC, wrote on Twitter.

President Donald Trump referred to Haiti and African nations as “shithole countries” during a meeting with a bipartisan group of senators at the White House, a Democratic aide briefed on Thursday’s meeting told NBC News.

Trump’s comments were first reported by The Washington Post, which said the nations referred to by Trump also included El Salvador.

Two sources briefed on the conversation say that during the portion of the conversation about Haiti — which came at the top of the exchange that led to the “shithole” comment — the president questioned why Haitians should be given specific consideration.

“Why do we need more Haitians, take them out,” he said, according to sources. Someone else in the room responded: “Because if you do, it will be obvious why.”
The U.N. human rights office said the comments, if confirmed, were “shocking and shameful” and “racist,” while Haiti’s foreign minister summoned the U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Robin Diallo for clarification.

The comments came as senators huddled in the Oval Office with the president to discuss a path forward on an immigration deal. Trump questioned why the United States would want people from nations such as Haiti while he was being briefed on changes to the visa lottery system.

According to the aide, when the group came to discussing immigration from Africa, Trump asked why America would want immigrants from “all these shithole countries” and that the U.S. should have more people coming in from places like Norway.

Punch Games

The head of the African Union on Wednesday said the crisis in Zimbabwe “seems like a coup” and called on the military to halt their actions and restore constitutional order.

Alpha Conde, who is also Guinea’s president, said the AU condemned the actions of top brass in the southern African nation as “clearly soldiers trying to take power by force”.

“The African Union expresses its serious concern regarding the situation unfolding in Zimbabwe,” a statement sent to AFP said, expressing support for the country’s “legal institutions”.

The African body further demanded “constitutional order to be restored immediately and calls on all stakeholders to show responsibility and restraint,” it added.

The Zimbabwean military took control of the country on Wednesday after a struggle to succeed 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe erupted in public, culminating in the sacking of the vice president, Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Mugabe is under house arrest, according to a conversation reported by President Jacob Zuma of South Africa.

Mugabe “indicated that he was confined to his home but said that he was fine,” the South African government said in a statement.

Punch Games

Morocco on Wednesday accused the African Union commission’s chairperson, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma of South Africa, of blocking Rabat’s efforts to rejoin the AU and lacking neutrality.

The foreign ministry, in a strongly worded statement, charged that she was “trying to thwart Morocco’s decision to regain its natural and legitimate place within its pan-African institutional family”.

Dlamini-Zuma had “delayed, in an unjustified manner, the circulation of Morocco’s demand to other members” in September, it said in a statement.

She was “keeping up her obstruction by improvising a new procedural demand, previously unheard of and unfounded… to arbitrarily reject the letters of support from AU member states”, it said, without giving details.

The ministry accused Dlamini-Zuma of acting “contrary to her obligation of neutrality, of AU rules and norms, and of the will of its member states”.

Rabat officially requested to rejoin the AU in September, 32 years after quitting the bloc in protest at its decision to accept Western Sahara as a member.

Morocco has occupied the sparsely populated Western Sahara area since 1975 in a move that was not recognised by the international community.

It maintains that Western Sahara is an integral part of the kingdom even though local Sahrawi people have long campaigned for the right to self-determination.

In 1991, the United Nations brokered a ceasefire between Moroccan troops and Sahrawi rebels of the Algerian-backed Polisario Front but a promised referendum to settle the status of the desert territory is yet to materialise.

The Moroccan online website Le360 on Wednesday accused Dlamini-Zuma of “a blatant lack of neutrality” and taking orders from Algiers.